Sunday June 15, 2008, 7:32 pm
You should put a beverage alert with that...

Sunday June 15, 2008, 7:41 pm

Sorry, AJ. I had to break my no-posting rule for this one because I didn't want anyone else to get spattered. ROFL

Sunday June 15, 2008, 9:28 pm

You know this idea is heartbreakingly funny but might actually have some
merit if it could be used to save lives. Stranger things have happened.

Thank you Mark

Sunday June 15, 2008, 9:48 pm

Credit where due, it was Michael W. who explained to me that they didn't have voting machines in Zimbabwe.

Of course it could also backfire. If we had honest elections here, who's to say that those in power wouldn't resort to the same violence as Mugabe uses to retain their power? Bush certainly would, and Congress has given him all the taxpayer money he wanted for his private mercenaries. McCain certainly has no qualms about using violence to achieve his ends. And Obama has stated that he will continue the war of aggression in Afghanistan and use more private mercenaries than Bush to maintain a presence in Iraq indefinitely. With trillions of dollars in war profits at stake, if they couldn't rig the elections here nonviolently, I can't say that they wouldn't be willing to kill a few million or even tens of millions of Americans in order to retain power.

It is important to remember that the candidates and their appointees are not accountable to us, but that they ARE accountable to the military-industrial complex. Obama made his bones when he voted to continue funding the war, knowing that he was using taxpayer money for something that taxpayers overwhelmingly disapproved of, and that the money would be used to torture and kill more innocent people for Halliburton.

At best, Marian, providing Mugabe with voting machines and programmers to hack them, would only delay the violence. With over a million percent inflation and deep conflicts, it would certainly return again.

Elections were supposed to be a way of settling things without violence. They do fulfill that purpose in some places, but not here, where they are used to justify wars of aggression, and not in Zimbabwe where they are used only to confirm a dictator's power.

It's a knotty problem and I apologize for taking it lightly. But it does need to be understood.

Monday June 16, 2008, 12:33 am
And I clicked on thinking this was going to provide some real way to help !

Monday June 16, 2008, 12:44 am
funny !

Monday June 16, 2008, 2:01 am
Thank you Mark! For some this is not helpful, for other, as you said in your article, it is a real treasure! :)

Monday June 16, 2008, 4:04 am

Thanks, Agnes and Tere.

Jill, sometimes there are no easy answers. As Marian said, this actually might be a real way to help. Many counties ARE suing the voting machine vendors and trying to get rid of their voting machines. Zimbabwe does NOT have voting machines. Sure, it would just legitimize a dictator and would, at best, only postpone the violence, but sometimes violence delayed is violence denied.

Anyway, I put the "create anarchy" picture next to it, to give people a clue that it wasn't the usual type of story. A lot of us donate to groups helping Africa, but there's still a lot of violence and there will probably be a lot more. This may be "outside the box" but I haven't heard too many better ideas. In fact the best proposals I've heard involve more violence to stop the violence. That may be necessary and may turn out to be the only real way to help.

On the other hand, if this actually happened, it might delay the violence long enough to make it possible to end the violence using a lot less violence than would be necessary right now.

Unfortunately my own county is still using the voting machines. Our registrar of voters is a former Diebold salesperson. But if your county is getting rid of its voting machines, why not ask if they'd be willing to donate them to Zimbabwe? It really doesn't cost anything to ask.

Peace!

Monday June 16, 2008, 6:02 am
Yep, I knew you couldn't stay away long Mark, LOL...good post, TY & Michael W. this is signed & noted.
Blessings to us all.
FreeSpirit...

Monday June 16, 2008, 6:10 am

Thank you, Free Spirit. Peace!

Monday June 16, 2008, 7:24 am
Welcome back back Mark and thanks for this article.

Monday June 16, 2008, 1:26 pm

Thanks, Joycey. Whenever something makes me think, I like to share it.

Monday June 16, 2008, 3:24 pm
Thank you Mark

Monday June 16, 2008, 5:10 pm

And thank you, Chiara. It is long overdue that I acknowledge your thoughtful comments and messages to me on matters of global concern.

Monday June 16, 2008, 8:20 pm
I have to admit that I was offended when I first read this, because of what they're going through over there. But reading it again, I can let it go and just see the humor in it. Thank you, Mark, for sharing your latest.

Monday June 16, 2008, 8:39 pm

I apologize Karen. I've been offending a lot of people lately. No matter if what I say is true and is only, as Marian put it, "heartbreakingly funny," I'm often totally lacking in tact and sensitivity. And my instinctive reaction to anything that reeks of hopelessness, is morbid humor. Thank you for giving the story, and me, a second chance.

Monday June 16, 2008, 8:43 pm

I apologize Karen. I've been offending a lot of people lately. No matter if what I say is true and is only, as Marian put it, "heartbreakingly funny," I'm often totally lacking in tact and sensitivity. And my instinctive reaction to anything that reeks of hopelessness, is morbid humor. Thank you for giving the story, and me, a second chance.
-----

This comment disappeared when I was posting it, so I apologize if it ends up posted twice. And I apologize to everyone I haven't apologized to yet, and to those who are getting tired of my apologies--I've got a whole lot more backlogged. Sorry. :(

Monday June 16, 2008, 9:05 pm
Ouch!

Monday June 16, 2008, 9:07 pm

Sorry, Sara. ;)

Tuesday June 17, 2008, 4:28 am
If the american way of elections could free Zimbabwe this would be great!
But it would only give a lifetime guarantee for Mr President Mugabe!
We need a more difficult sollution to free ZIMBABWE! If you think of what is going on there any action would be justified! Kill that man shoot him invite him to live in Lausane in Switzerland anything to stop this regime from killing the Country! Zimbabwe should be a rich country with very much food and it will be but it will take decades to rebuild what he has destroyed! Sir Mugabe can you imagine...SIR Mugabe! He is realy a sir!
God save the QUEEN~ that was one of her larger public mistakes!

Tuesday June 17, 2008, 8:11 am

Maybe it was Mugabe's mistake. As soon as I get back from the anti-Blackwater protest & court hearing today, I'll see if I can find a picture of the knighting of Mugabe and make up a news story (unless somebody else wants to do it first) to go with it. Something like:

Mugabe: The Black Face of White Rule
(picture of queen knighting Mugabe)
What kind of black nationalist would kneel to a white woman? Mugabe rules Zimbabwe for himself and his Queen, not for Zimbabweans.

If nothing else it might help counter his propaganda.

Tuesday June 17, 2008, 12:58 pm

Thanks for posting this, Mark!

Tuesday June 17, 2008, 3:11 pm

Looks like all pictures of Mugabe kneeling before the Queen to be knighted have been removed from the web. But even if they removed his knighthood, it is a matter of public record. Sad not to be able to find a picture--shows how corrupt and complicit the media is, as if we didn't already know.